The quiet riot

This is how law-abiding citizens protest when they are unhappy about the way government is working: they patiently wait for the next election, hop in their car, drive to the polling place and quietly cast a vote for change using nothing more explosive than a simple paper ballot.

It is, quite literally, a quiet riot.

Unlike the anti-police mobs that took to the streets over the last two-and-a-half years and burned American cities like Ferguson and Baltimore to ash and terrorized so many other cities with violent riots, all of which were described by the press and politicians alike as "peaceful protests," the quiet rioters – those who express their displeasure with government by casting a vote rather than a Molotov cocktail – actually did engage in a form of peaceful protest. Nov. 8 represented a counter-protest in response to those who tried to intimidate Americans with destruction and anarchy. But, more than anything, it was a rebuke of the pandering politicians who embraced the battle cry of those who launched a war on police and a war on our American values.

Central to the democratic principles this nation was founded on is the notion of the "American Dream," that fundamental idea that those who seize on the abundant opportunities we have as citizens of these United States can make a better life for themselves and enjoy the harvest of their toils.

We used to celebrate people who worked hard and played by the rules in this country. We used to call it the "Protestant work ethic," but it wasn't limited to one particular religion or race. Our economy rewarded anyone who engaged in that work ethic.

Now we call it – with great antipathy – "white privilege."

And, that's what this election came down to. The anti-police demonstrations we endured ultimately metamorphosed from an attack on the thin blue line to an attack on so-called white privilege. We heard it out of the mouths of police detractors trying to assign blame to police supporters over and over again: white privilege, white privilege, white privilege.

The demonizing of police: How far will it go? Get a cop's-eye view of the current climate against law enforcement with Jeff Roorda's "The War on Police: How the Ferguson Effect is Making America Unsafe"

The clear message to people who struggle to make ends meet at their 40-, 50- or 60-hour a week job was: you deserve less despite your hard work and your obedience to the rules of a civil society, and the people who turned violence against the police or celebrated those who turned violence against the police deserve more, and it should come out of your pocket.

Not a great populist message in a country where the vast majority of us still work hard and play by the rules. But it was a popular platitude for those candidates who wanted to endear themselves to Black Lives Matter and other anti-police fringe groups in order to benefit from the bevy of minority votes they expected to flow from their cajoling. The problem is, these fringe groups don't represent the majority. They don't even represent minorities. The plurality of people of color in this nation want their neighborhoods to be safe, and they respect the police for trying to stem the violence that plagues the inner city. They also aspire for the American Dream even though the feel it is a bit too far out of reach sometimes. Even then, most people of color seize at that brass ring by working hard and playing by the rules.

So that, it would seem, is the challenge that faces Trump and his administration when he takes office, isn't it? Nudging that brass ring just a bit closer to the grasps of those who find it beyond their reach. But you still have to reach for it; there is no reward without struggle. And there is no opportunity without order. For our economy and our society to thrive, we need order, not chaos.

We need order – law and order – everywhere, not just in comfortable suburbs where the brass ring gleams but in the most hopeless urban neighborhood where it seems distant and tarnished. The prospect of seizing on opportunity, of achieving the American Dream, requires an orderly society where we can go to work feeling safe and come home to find our hard-earned property intact.

That's not too much to ask for, and that is what Mr. Trump promised us all by rejecting this idea of white privilege and cop bashing that threatened the tranquility and prosperity of our "more perfect union." Those preambulatory words our Founding Fathers penned two-and-a-half centuries ago still hold true today. Those same Founding Fathers believed in the idea of democratic action at the ballot box. They believed change should come through quiet riots.

So change we shall.